Vintage RC Society Reunion
by Bob Noll
Recapturing and preserving RC's past
It was a great weekend at the Blue Swan Airport in Sayre, PA, when the Aeroguidance Society hosted the 2000 Vintage RC Society Annual Reunion.
The weather was warm and sunny, with minimal winds, and more than 75 airplanes took to the air in celebration of the event September 2–3, 2000.
The Vintage Radio Control Society (VRCS) is an organization dedicated to the preservation of our radio control (RC) history — the achievements of those electronic and airframe-design pioneers who made RC the hobby/sport it is today.
Any airplane that employed radio control and was in kit form, published, or flown prior to January 1, 1970 is eligible under VRCS rules. Any radio or engine can be used, although many members try to utilize the engines employed at the time of the design.
A letter I received from one of the VRCS founders, John Worth, tells about the organization and its background.
History and founding
John wrote:
"The Vintage RC Society was born in 1989, initially as an idea by Bill Winter, resulting from discussions with Hal 'Pappy' deBolt, as to how the history of RC could be recorded and preserved. Further discussions got Joe Beshar, John Worth, and Art Schroeder involved.
This founding group quickly agreed that to make the society function a newsletter would be needed, to serve as a means of communication among all interested parties and to provide the basis for historical documentation.
With Joe Beshar's prodding, Art Schroeder accepted the responsibility for producing the newsletter, with John Worth agreeing to serve as the initial president, whereupon Joe signed on as secretary/treasurer. The organization was established informally, with decisions by unanimous agreement of the three officers.
The first issue of the newsletter was issued in July 1989, with a production goal of quarterly issues. That first issue promoted the idea of the organization being more than just a talk forum.
It generated the idea of annual get-togethers where the theme would be 'fly and tell,' featuring demonstrations by prominent RCers flying original or replica models of vintage RC designs.
By the end of 1989, with 220 members, the 'fly and tell' concept was established with the first reunion scheduled for the 1990 Labor Day weekend in September at the airport at Selinsgrove, PA, site of earlier RC events.
Following a very successful first VRCS event that year, the annual reunion continued regularly at Selinsgrove on Labor Day weekends until 1996, when the location was changed to Lums Pond State Park near Newark, Delaware.
In 2000 the reunion moved to Sayre, PA under the direction of Bob Noll. The reunion is also scheduled there for 2001. Thus, for 10 years the annual reunions have continued, supplemented by additional get-togethers at Sayre, PA, Muncie, Indiana, and Spring Hill, Florida.
In 1993 the VRCS established the R/C Hall of Fame, in conjunction with the annual WRAM (Westchester Radio Aero Modelers) Show in White Plains, NY. It was based on the premise that, automatically, anyone chosen by the WRAM club to receive the club's annual prestigious Howard McEntee Memorial Medal would be inducted into the R/C Hall of Fame. This also included all previous McEntee Medal recipients, in addition to the current selection.
The total of R/C Hall of Famers honored by the Society to date is 24 — all among the mainstays or pioneers over the years.
"Along the way over the 12 years of Society existence, some changes have come about. John Wick retired from the presidency in 1999 and was succeeded by Bill Northrup. Joe Bachar retired from the secretary/treasurer position in 1993 and was succeeded by Bill Pouthouse, who, unlike Art Schroeder, continues as newsletter editor.
"As of this year, Weldon Smith is in the new vice-president position and he is also Central Region representative to the newly formed VRCS Executive Council, along with Jack Albrecht as Western Region representative and Bob Bingaman as Eastern Region representative.
"Furthermore, the VRCS now has bylaws. They were not felt to be needed previously but were necessary in order for the organization to be officially recognized last year as a Special Interest Group (SIG) by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), to represent vintage R/C interests. VRCS is therefore on into its second decade, with leadership added and strengthened financially. The membership will be increased as new members (this has been relatively static at about 300 members, gaining new members slowly as older members have passed on), and to expand vintage activities on more of a national basis to gain Western participation to add to the largely Eastern and Central activities."
Reunion activities
Pilot arrival for the 2000 event began Friday. Several chose to camp with their recreational vehicles at the pit area site.
Lanny Noll was registering pilots by Saturday morning, where each participant received a colorful commemorative 2000 Reunion button. I set up the public-address system, and placed the orange cones that defined the flight line stations.
Terry and Ann Terrencio set up the concession stand, and offered coffee and pastries for the early birds. Many hot dogs and hamburgers were cooked to go with the chips, salad, and drinks at lunchtime.
Flying got off to a slow start Saturday, probably because of the fun of greeting old friends and checking out the airplanes that were there. However, the sky was full of all sorts of airplanes by 10 a.m., and it was clear that everyone was going to have a great time.
At roughly 11 a.m. I gathered the pilots who were planning to enter the 1950s Pattern contest to go over the flight sequence and introduce the judges: Bob Jennings and Steve Bard of the Aeroguidance Society.
A special announcement was made to notify everyone that open flying would not stop during the contest and that all contest flying would take place from only one flight station. This was done so that those who did not enter the contest could enjoy uninterrupted flying from the other flight stations.
The Pattern classes reflect the names of early R/C pioneers who excelled in rudder-only, intermediate, and multi-channel control. The classes were defined by the control used in those days.
One of the most unique events of the weekend took place Saturday afternoon, when Bill Capon challenged Joe Bachar to the ugly plane contest. Bill and Joe have been flying some very interesting models for many years.
As Contest Director, I assembled a group of three judges to make the call. Joe Bachar came through as the winner, with his ugly, oil-soaked and ratty H-Ray. Joe's model was so bad that someone hid it from him Saturday evening, in the hope that it would never fly again. However, Joe found the ugly mess and flew it, to the applause of many. Joe announced that he would rebuild it to fly again.
The field was almost deserted at approximately 5 p.m., as pilots and spouses headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening banquet. An open bar was available at 6 p.m., and dinner was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. sharp.
Ron Cowan of Waverly, NY displayed a huge assortment of his early radio collection.
Contact and membership
Contact me at (607) 754-5279 or [email protected] for details. For those who have "walked the walk," come to this year's annual reunion. The event is full of old friends with old stories about the early days of our great hobby's past.
Our reunions are not limited to VRCS members, but membership is worth the subscription to the newsletter edited by Art Schroeder, who has volumes of information about "old days" because of his tenure as editor for Model Aviation.
Mail memberships of $20 ($25 outside US) to VRCS treasurer Bill Paynter at 2 Hemlock Ct., Saugerties, NY 12477.
The Society has an Internet group set up at [email protected]; contact Red Schofield at redschof@... for information.
Pilots and airplanes flown
- Ed Welch of Montclair, NJ (in RC for 40 years) — 1955 Top Flite Orion with a Super Tigre .60
- David Schiller of Chadds Ford, PA (in RC for two years) — 1952/1953 scratch-built RC-1
- Bob Bingaman of Northumberland, PA (in RC for 47 years) — 1958 RC-1 with a Saito .65; 1958 Rudderbug with an Enya .90; Live-Wire Cruiser with a Saito .65
- Dick Allen of Endicott, NY (in RC for 47 years) — Great White Shark; 1965 Shark; 1957 Lancer
- John Haffner of Princess Anne, MD (in RC for 42 years) — 1967 New Friend on rudder-only with an O.S. .10; 1967 Kwik-Fli III with a K&B .61
- Frank Iacobellis of Rye, NY (in RC for 30 years) — 1960 DeBolt Yankee on rudder-only with an O.S. .10; 1959 VK Cherokee with an Enya .60; 1960 Tessier Skyhawk with a Cox .049
- Fred Koval of Bloomfield, NJ (in RC for 30 years) — 1956 Air Trail Stik with an O.S. .20; late 1940s Super Stag with an Enya .15; 1955 Tudor Gypsy with an electric Astro 05SC
- Colin McKinley of Winston-Salem, NC (in RC for 40+ years) — 1950 DeBolt Champ and 1960 DeBolt Yankee on rudder-only, both with electric motors
- James Wood of Hopewell Junction, NY (in RC for 21 years) — 1965 Tri Squire with ...
(Note: the scanned page becomes difficult to read at the end of this list; several entries and details are faint or partially obscured.)
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
